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Introduction: Comedy in an Age of Tragedy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2013

Francesco Izzo
Francesco Izzo
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Southampton, and has also taught at New York University, East Carolina University, and the University of Chicago
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Summary

An Age of Tragedy

Rome, December 1845. On the eve of the new carnival season, there is great anticipation for the arrival of the celebrated basso buffo, Carlo Cambiaggio. Having earned a tremendous success at the Teatro Argentina the year before, Cambiaggio has taken over the management of the Teatro Valle, where he prepares to run a season consisting entirely of comic works: his own pastiche Don Procopio (1844), Luigi Ricci's Chi dura vince (1834), Gaetano Donizetti's La figlia del reggimento (1840), and Giuseppe Verdi's Un giorno di regno (1840). Local poet Jacopo Ferretti, one of the leading librettists of his generation, author of the poetry for one of Gioachino Rossini's great masterpieces, La Cenerentola (1817) and for Gaetano Donizetti's early comic success, L'ajo nell'imbarazzo (1824), dedicates the following poem to the renowned singer:

Sai che dei librettisti or suda l'estro

A straziar degli eroi petto, epa o strozza

Con pugnal, con arsenico, o capestro

Sì che lo spettator guata e singhiozza.

Il più beccajo ha titol di maestro;

Archimandrita è chi più affoga, o sgozza,

E rivela all'intreccio e alla parola

Che d'Attila e Neron crebbe alla scuola.

Apri tesor di melodie ridenti,

Apri tesor di critiche commedie,

E affollinsi al mattin pronte le genti

Né vuote lascin logge, panche, o sedie,

Così la sera ozierem contenti,

Scordando le domestiche tragedie;

Ché ogni testa … ch'è testa … è persuasa

Che il melodramma serio han tutti in casa.

Type
Chapter
Information
Laughter between Two Revolutions
Opera Buffa in Italy, 1831-1848
 , pp. 1 - 20
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2013

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  • Introduction: Comedy in an Age of Tragedy
  • Francesco Izzo, Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Southampton, and has also taught at New York University, East Carolina University, and the University of Chicago
  • Book: Laughter between Two Revolutions
  • Online publication: 05 December 2013
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  • Introduction: Comedy in an Age of Tragedy
  • Francesco Izzo, Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Southampton, and has also taught at New York University, East Carolina University, and the University of Chicago
  • Book: Laughter between Two Revolutions
  • Online publication: 05 December 2013
Available formats
×

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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction: Comedy in an Age of Tragedy
  • Francesco Izzo, Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Southampton, and has also taught at New York University, East Carolina University, and the University of Chicago
  • Book: Laughter between Two Revolutions
  • Online publication: 05 December 2013
Available formats
×